Rancher Marv Kammerer and farmer's son John Buxcel protest at Occupy Rapid City

While many of the Occupy movements around the country have focused on the big banks and the concentration of wealth, occupiers now include farmers and ranchers. In early December over 500 farmers and their supporters gathered in a community garden in New York City to protest being held captive by Big Ag. Monsanto, the corporate giant that controls the seeds for most of the soybeans and corn grown in this country, is a prime target. Other large corporations that control most of the beef, pork, chicken, and milk production in the US are also being called to account.

Forcing small farmers off the land and destroying meaningful jobs is what these corporations do, all in the name of profit. Read the whole story of agribusiness takeovers and farmers’ responses here.

We’ve written about this before, and here it is again—the sad story of the demise of dairy farms in West River. The closing of the Neugebauer dairy business in Hermosa leaves only Black Hills Milk in Belle Fourche providing us with local milk from happy healthy cows.

Milk truck waiting to haul milk to Pollock

The last straw for the Neugebauer family, after milking 365 days a year for 56 years, was the 2007 closing of the milk processing plant in Rapid City. That required them to truck their milk to an East River cheese plant, an expensive proposition. You can read more about the family struggle to survive in a recent RCJ article.

Dairy farms, like other small family owned businesses, need our support. They keep money in the community, money that when spent in a supermarket leaves the state. That locally generated money can be used to support other local farmers and ranchers who have hay and grain to sell. And the business provides employment for family members and hired hands willing to do the hard work.

Unfortunately, advertising keeps consumers focused on low cost rather than on quality. Buying cheap makes the food dollar go farther but shrinks the neighborhood, perpetuates abusive animal practices, and gives milk-drinking children growth hormones and antibiotics that negatively affect health.

Food awareness is needed here, and the long lines at Dawn Habeck’s Black Hills Milk truck in Rapid City suggest that it’s spreading.

Dawn Habeck of Black Hills Milk in Belle Fourche continues to sell her raw milk at Founders Park in Rapid City and at the Red Barn Farmers Market in Spearfish. With Neugebauer’s in Hermosa selling off most of their herd, BHM is now the only West River dairy farm producing cows milk for sale to the public. Dawn is upping her milk production and getting out of the cheese business, since transportation of milk to the cheese factory in Pollock is expensive and time consuming.

When you consider how much grass we’ve got out here on the high prairie and how many people in our area drink milk, it seems like we ought to be able get the two together, with local cows doing the processing. But the system currently in place doesn’t work that way. Instead, milk produced elsewhere is ultra pasteurized so it lasts for weeks and is trucked long distances to get to our schools and supermarkets, which demand the lowest prices.

For local farmers to produce more milk, a local milk pasteurization plant is needed so that the milk can be sold in stores. We’ve had at least two of them in the past. The Creamery Building in downtown Rapid City, now offices and a restaurant, is a testament to that.

Dawn and her husband John are totally committed to staying in the dairy business, with humane treatment of their animals and producing the highest quality milk. We’re lucky they’re here, and we have to find ways to support them. Otherwise it’s super pasteurized milk from cows that do not have a good life and a lot of wasted fossil fuel.

The Black Hills Farmers Market members meet twice a year to enjoy a good meal together and conduct the business of the group. The next meeting will be Thursday, November 3 at the Golden Corral, 1180 North LaCrosse Street, in Rapid City. You do not have to be a member of the market to come to these meetings. Anyone interested in buying or selling local food is welcome.

The meal starts at noon, and the business meeting follows.

Darel Anderson, who farms near Wall and sells at the Black Hills Farmers Market, sent us this post:

Eric Schlosser’s speech left me with the realization that we have lost control of our food supply system. We have allowed the centralization and industrialization of American farming due to company conformity which, one might argue, benefits efficient production. But why have we become so obese and unhealthy in the last few decades? Because, due to company conformity, producers (i.e. farmers and ranchers) have to apply inputs to their products such as hormones, antibiotics, GMOs, chemicals, etc. which are unhealthy and weaken our immune system. The producers must conform to remain financially solvent, and the big corporations apply these practices to maximize profitability.

Mr. Schlosser explained to concerned producers and consumers willing to listen that a few decades ago five companies owned 21% of all beef packing facilities nationwide. Today only four companies own 85% of those facilities. The reality of that statistic is that those companies can virtually control the standards of their own industry without any checks and balances from established health codes. Now, when there is a foodborne illness outbreak, the widespread consequences can be devastating due to the mega volumes involve. It is not just the meat packing industry that has been reduced to the pitfalls of centralization. Today only six companies own all of agriculture’s seed supply, and one of those companies controls 80% of the industry, making it mandatory that we use their chemicals and synthetic fertilizers to produce.

The problem is that biodiversity, what many believe is essential to a healthy ecosystem, is in jeopardy. We have lost, due to consolidation, the individual local grower who, in my opinion, produces a superior product to that of big corporations. Also, there now is little to safeguard the consumer against mega corporations who can afford to buy their own justice system.

It seemed to me that Mr. Schlosser left us just a tad short on the solution. But he did opine that we should as consumers vote with our dollars for healthy food that is sustainable for the producer and the environment.

Buy food products that are for your health and not just for your convenience. Learn to can and preserve fresh picked fruits and vegetables. Become familiar with those individuals who are already growing and storing home-grown eggs, meat, milk, and vegetables. Ask those individuals about their growing and harvesting practices. Read how it is done and why it is so vitally important to your family’s health and well-being. Make plans this winter to raise your own garden next summer. When there are meetings, workshops and conferences — you must attend. Contribute to and defend those who want to bring fresh local organic food to everyone’s table. Ask your local grocer what chemicals and genetic manipulation went into the production of the product that you are about to buy (really, it is your dollar). Let the packaged food industry know that you are no longer their lackey. And PLEASE get off the soda pop — it is killing us.

A big Thank You to my alma mater Black Hills State University for the opportunity to attend this lecture.